METROPOLIS TOUR

Islington O2 Academy - London

9 July 2010

Tonight is quite special for me as Suzanne is bringing Freya (my 7 year old daughter)
along. It will be the first time she will have seen us onstage and I’m not sure what
she’ll make of it. Hope she’s proud of her daddy.

The lights go down, a cheer goes up and the intro tape starts. Are you ready London?
We take to the stage, the cheers get louder and we kick into Wildside and the crowd
are totally with us 100%, come on ‘ave it! Wildside ends and Steve conducts the FM
choir through Face to Face. Weirdly amongst all the mayhem I’m sat wondering if Suzanne
and Freya have made it okay to the gig. We launch into That Girl and it’s poignant,
to me at least, that during this song I see some guys at the front hoist my little
darling Freya above their heads so I can see her. She smiles, waves and I melt, tears
of a very proud daddy welling up. I’ll tell you things don’t get much better than
that. Thanks guys I’ll never forget that moment as long as I live, God bless you!
I wonder if she’ll remember it? Next up it’s Don’t Stop and Steve “The Silver Fox”
Overland's amp blows up. Phil his tech is well on the case and replaces a blown fuse.
Unfortunately the replacements are the wrong sort and keep blowing (our fault Phil,
not yours mate). Another amp takes its place and all is well and we’re back on track
and loving every minute of it.

We’re doing Hard Day in Hell tonight and we welcome onstage Carl Brunsdon on the
sexy saxophone and he sends shivers down my spine, blinding mate! During the last
few songs of the encore Freya is sitting in the photo pit smiling up at me, life
is good. Onstage with FM, playing to you wonderful people and my daughter smiling
up at me… magical! The show ends, we take our bow and I try to say a few words of
thanks to you but the mic isn’t working so I pluck my awestruck daughter from the
photo pit and we say our farewells to you good people, thanks for being so nice to
a very proud dad and his little girl. Later Freya commented “I liked being onstage
with you Daddy. I felt really famous”. God bless you all!

Although there was such a strict curfew and we had to cut Meet & Greet numbers to
twenty I really must applaud and thank the people in charge at The Academy for bending
over backwards and Adrian our manager for making it happen. M&Gs to us are a very
important part of our shows, so mucho respect people and thank you for your help
in making it happen!

Steve and I head from the venue to the Nags Head around the corner along with Adrian
for a few celebratory beers. We meet up with quite a few people who have been at
the show and it’s great having a chat and catching up with some friends old and new.
A friend of mine - Richard, an FM virgin and someone who is actually more a Chas
and Dave fan congratulates me saying “F***ing brilliant mate, very good” whilst shaking
my hand, cool another convert. This is a very civilised after show drink and next
time we play here I’m definitely up for more of the same.

London it was truly emotional! See you next time!

Pete xx

It’s the hottest day of the year so far as I set off on the walk to Ealing Broadway
Station to travel to Angel. Ticket purchased and nice one, a main line train to Paddington
is pulling in, sweet. Off at Paddington and onto the circle line to Kings Cross where
I change for the Northern line to Angel. The whole journey goes like clockwork. When
the tube system behaves it’s a quick and convenient way to get around town, when
it’s not it’s an underground hell hole. Today is good. It’s good that the journey
is without hitches as I have a phone interview to do and mobile reception is not
good underground. If you’ll indulge me, a quick aside on mobile reception. I was
flying home from, I think, Israel and had forgotten to switch my phone off. Imagine
my surprise when on arrival to LHR my phone was showing one of those mobile network
text messages saying “Welcome to Greece thanks for using our mobile network”. 35,000ft
up and there’s a signal??? Bonkers!

Where was I? Ah yes, the phoner. The station called and we had a good chat live on
air for over 20 minutes. Interview over and as I made my way to the venue I met my
nephew Niki and his mate Josh who are going to do some filming. Bloody hell it’s
hot! I decide to head off for a quick bite to eat before heading into the venue and
found a sandwich bar where I ordered a tuna and coleslaw baguette. Feeling suitably
nourished I head back to the gig, and what a fantastic venue we have here. A good
sized stage, high ceiling, great lights and PA. I was commenting the night before
in Cardiff about the much improved quality and facilities provided by the venues
we’d played since our reunion as opposed to the ones in the early 90’s of which some
left a lot to be desired.

I’m the first band member to arrive. The others are travelling in by car. Friday
afternoon travelling into London on the hottest day of the year - rather them than
me, hope they’ve got A/C. Inside the venue it’s swelteringly hot. I mention this
to the lighting guy who tells me to ask to have the air con switched on, this I do
and within a couple of minutes the place is lovely and cool, simple! The rest of
the guys turn up hot and very bothered after a two hour journey stuck in traffic
with no A/C. Serves them right for not taking the greener option of the tube like
Pete “Friend of the Earth” Jupp :-)

The gear is up, miked and ready to go so it’s soundcheck time for us. Soundcheck
is a quick affair which is good and gives Romeo's Daughter a decent amount of time
themselves. It’s an early curfew tonight as the venue turns into a club at 11.00pm.
Doors at 7pm, Romeos on at 7.15pm, off at 8pm and us chaps on at 8.30pm sharp. We
have to be done by 10pm latest. I’m in the depths of the venue backstage where the
dressing rooms are and I decide to have a quick shower and freshen up before getting
changed ready for the show.

8.20pm and Steve Church comes down and says they’re ready for us. We troop out and
have to climb four very long flights of stairs to get to the stage. We should have
asked for oxygen on the rider, as by the time we’ve climbed the final flight I’m
bloody knackered.